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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22715950">15th February, 2020.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poe/pseuds/Poe'>Poe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(and the inherent creepiness of the messages they send), (it's like a couple of sentences but just in case), Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Artist Steve Rogers, Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Fun discussions of cannibalism and one mention of Hannibal, Happy Ending, I guess this is an attempt at humour, Idiots in Love, Love Hearts, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff, Writer Bucky Barnes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:02:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,862</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22715950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poe/pseuds/Poe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I really thought this year would be different,” Bucky said, stuffing a Lindt chocolate into his mouth. The date was February 15th, and as such, he had already raided the discount chocolate aisles. His bank balance may be a little lighter, but he wouldn’t be, not after he’d made his way through all this.</p><p>“Hmm?” Steve murmured, arranging a pack of Love Hearts from least to most disturbing.</p><p>“Like, okay, not grand romance, but a card would have been nice. Flowers, you know?”</p><p>* * * </p><p>Or it's the day after Valentine's, and both the boys are single. Maybe they've been looking in all the wrong places all along.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>265</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>15th February, 2020.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I really thought this year would be different,” Bucky said, stuffing a Lindt chocolate into his mouth. The date was February 15<sup>th</sup>, and as such, he had already raided the discount chocolate aisles. His bank balance may be a little lighter, but he wouldn’t be, not after he’d made his way through all this.</p><p>“Hmm?” Steve murmured, arranging a pack of Love Hearts from least to most disturbing.</p><p>“Like, okay, not grand romance, but a card would have been nice. Flowers, you know?”</p><p>“You haven’t even dated in the last year,” Steve pointed out, wondering whether ‘<em>Devour Me</em>’ was worse than ‘<em>I Want Your Babies</em>’. “Literally you have made no effort whatsoever on that front. You’re the dateless wonder at this stage, Buck. I keep telling you.”</p><p>“Oh wow, rude. So I’m single and completely unwilling to mingle. I don’t see why that precludes me from having a hot boyfriend.”</p><p>“Gotta invest to undress,” Steve said, failing to hold back a grin.</p><p>“You think of that yourself?” Bucky asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow. “You did, didn’t you? Oh my god, you’re actually proud of it. I hate you so much.”</p><p>“Nah, you don’t. You wish you did, but who could hate this?” Steve gestured to his sweatpant clad form, the snuggly hoodie that might have been Bucky’s hanging loose and comfy on him. Everything he wore was at least speckled, if not outright swiped, with paints of different colours.</p><p>(Bucky sort of thought it made Steve look like a painting, like art. He liked that. Maybe that made him cultured, he thought.)</p><p>“You’re fine I guess. But hey – still single too, so fuck you.”</p><p>“I went through a breakup, that can wound a man,” Steve said, though he was still smiling. Bucky remembered it, Steve had wandered into their shared apartment, slumped onto the couch, told Bucky that Jonah had dumped him, and then they’d ordered McDonalds from UberEats and played Mario Kart. Steve hadn’t seemed too upset by the turn of events. Sort of relieved, if anything.</p><p>“Pal, I’ve had burgers I appreciated more than you appreciated that relationship, grow up.”</p><p>“Ehh,” Steve waved a casual hand in the air, “I just, I’m not feeling it, I guess. I think I’d like the next relationship I have to be – not the one, maybe, but something really special. And I haven’t found anyone that I can see a future with. I always feel like I have to hide some part of me, like, hiding the crazy, you know? I just want someone I can hang with and not filter myself.”</p><p>“Oh Stevie,” Bucky said, and nudged a foot under Steve’s thigh, causing Steve to grump at him. “I didn’t realise.”</p><p>“It’s not a big deal. Like, this,” he gestured to the Love Hearts he was now moving into what seemed to be a complicated Venn diagram. “Who’s going to sit by and watch me do this and think it’s a normal thing to do?”</p><p>“Love Hearts are objectively creepy, you’re just doing science,” Bucky objected.</p><p>“You know what I mean,” Steve said, then shrugged. “But hey, you have no excuses. You’re a relatively normal person with a relatively normal looking face.”</p><p>“Wow, compliment me more often, why don’t you,” Bucky said, grinning. He wiggled his toes under Steve’s thigh and Steve grumped at him again. “But I think the chalkboard beside my bed would say differently.”</p><p>Bucky was, of course referring to the picture frame Steve had covered in black chalk board paint and gifted him, along with chalk markers, for his birthday last year. Bucky used it to scribble down 3am ideas, after too many incidents of having to grab his phone and ruin his chances of sleeping, or worse, forgetting the idea because he was certain he’d remember it in the morning. It was full of multi-coloured strands of thoughts, some for titles, some lines of dialogue, some just words that sounded nice together. To someone who didn’t know what they were looking at, it might look a little odd, to say the least.</p><p>“I like it, I get so many ideas for paintings from it. Your brain is nifty,” Steve said, holding a faded Love Heart closer to his face to try figure out what it said, “so many of these refer to cannibalism, it’s quite disturbing.”</p><p>“I think you’re reading too much into it,” Bucky said, “and really? The paintings, I mean?”</p><p>“I feel like these were developed by a neural network that had watched too much Hannibal, but whatever. And yeah. I think the last – god, probably the last three were direct results of staring at your chalkboard.”</p><p>“Huh,” Bucky said, and frowned in thought. He thought about the paintings, how Steve would never let anyone see them until they were finished, apart from him, of course, it was kind of hard not to, they had to dry in the main living area, where it was warmest, especially this time of year. And the paint fumes were bad for Steve’s lungs, so he’d paint out here sometimes too. But he always covered them when people came round. Even Sam and Nat. But not Bucky. Huh, indeed.</p><p>“That’s cool,” Bucky said, because it was. “Maybe one day we’ll coincide and you can paint the cover of my first book.”</p><p>“I’ll paint all your books, you know that,” Steve said, “just gotta hurry up and write one.”</p><p>“Oh sure,” Bucky rolled his eyes, “like it’s that easy. I’m working on it, okay? It’s hard.”</p><p>He whined the last word, like it would garner any sympathy. Steve just grinned, showing the sharp white teeth that only appeared for his Bucky smiles.</p><p>“<em>Your skin is so smooth</em>,” Steve said, reading a Love Heart aloud. “That’s, that’s not something you want to hear, is it?”</p><p>“I mean, I have been moisturising more lately, but not really, no. Are you sure they’re legit and not like, poison or something? Should you be touching them?”</p><p>“They’re fine,” Steve shrugged, and popped ‘<em>I Want To Lick Your Eyeballs</em>’ into his mouth. Bucky lurched across the couch and pretended to try fish it out, like you would a dog or a toddler. Steve squirmed away, but was pinned by Bucky’s weight.</p><p>Steve chewed frantically, then swallowed defiantly, holding Bucky’s gaze the whole time, before sticking his tongue out. It was stained light blue.</p><p>“Not poisonous, just worrying. You gonna get off me?”</p><p>Bucky bracketed his arms on either side of Steve’s head, his legs on either side of Steve’s, noticing for the first time how much warmth Steve was giving off. Steve ran cold, usually, but right now he felt like a mini furnace.</p><p>“Might stay here,” Bucky said, carefully resting a little more weight onto Steve, just to see him squirm.</p><p>This was a mistake.</p><p>Steve squirmed upwards, and his hips snapped against Bucky’s.</p><p>Suddenly a million things made sense all at once to Bucky and all of them involved the dumb punk currently wriggling beneath him.</p><p><em>Oh no,</em> Bucky thought. “Oh no,” he said out loud. (His brain to mouth filter was for shit, okay?)</p><p>“What?” Steve asked, trying to push himself up on his elbows, forcing their bodies even closer together.</p><p>“Nothing,” Bucky said, trying to extract himself without causing a scene. Steve looked ruffled and flushed and fucking gorgeous and why hadn’t Bucky seen this before? Oh fuck.</p><p>Steve clamped his ankles around Bucky’s shins and refused to let him go.</p><p>“Hey, Buck,” he said, raising a hand to push the stray hairs from Bucky’s face, “hey, look at me. I think, whatever you’re thinking, I think I’m okay with it.”</p><p>“Argh,” Bucky managed, as Steve’s hand stayed resting loosely by his ear, and he leant into the touch, not quite ready to look at Steve. He closed his eyes. “Do you ever feel like maybe you’ve been looking in all the wrong places for something that’s been right in front of you the whole time?”</p><p>“I am very short sighted, so, yes.”</p><p>“You know what I mean,” Bucky said.</p><p>“I do. And it’s okay. I’m here. Buck, look at me, I’m here.”</p><p>Bucky couldn’t open his eyes, he couldn’t. Because if he did, Steve would see everything and Steve had always been able to read him like a book and there’d be nowhere to hide, ever again.</p><p>But when had he ever wanted to hide from Steve?</p><p>He opened his eyes.</p><p>“There you are,” Steve murmured. “There you are.”</p><p>“I’m here,” Bucky said, breathless suddenly.</p><p>“That’s convenient for me,” Steve said softly, tilting Bucky’s head down, so their noses were touching. Bucky sucked in a breath, and it didn’t seem to hit his lungs.</p><p>“Why’s that?” Bucky wasn’t even sure if he said it out loud until Steve replied.</p><p>“So I can do this.”</p><p>And then Steve kissed him, and he tasted of bitter sweet candy. Bucky let Steve take control, let Steve take whatever he wanted, for as long as he wanted. Steve’s hand found Bucky’s hair and tightened in it, tugging gently.</p><p>Oh, wow.</p><p>When they pulled back, (had it been minutes or years?) Steve’s lips were red and swollen, making him look debauched in a way Bucky thought he could write a million words about, if could ever pull himself away from this again.</p><p>“Look at you,” he murmured, resting his forehead against Steve’s, Steve’s hand still in his hair, fingers loose around the strands. “Why didn’t I see you?”</p><p>“You did,” Steve said, voice muffled, quiet, just for Bucky, “you always saw me. And I saw you. You know how long I’ve been watching you?”</p><p>Bucky shook his head slightly, bumping their noses together.</p><p>“So long, Buck, so long. And now, now I know it was worth the wait.”</p><p>“Are we doing this?” Bucky whispered.</p><p>“I think so.”</p><p>“And it’s not weird.”</p><p>Steve bucked up against him again, sending some very distinct signals to Bucky’s brain and other parts of him as well, fuzzing everything up.</p><p>“It’s not weird,” Steve said.</p><p>“But we’re weird,” Bucky managed, as Steve moved under him again.</p><p>“I’m okay with that,” Steve said, and pressed a kiss to the corner of Bucky’s mouth, before moving awkwardly to kiss his throat, causing Bucky to make a very undignified sound.</p><p>“Me too,” Bucky said, and moved to chase Steve’s mouth.</p><p>I suppose I should tell you that Steve’s careful sorting of the Love Hearts hadn’t been in vain, and that they survived the encounter, that at no point was the coffee table jostled and then knocked over, but that would be a lie. But somehow, the next morning, bleary eyed and limbs sex loose, Steve couldn’t find it within him to mind too much.</p><p>He found one that hadn’t been crushed, and turned it over.</p><p>‘<em>My favourite weirdo</em>’.</p><p>Well, that worked.</p><p>He held it tight to his palm, and turned around, heading back to the bedroom, breakfast forgotten. It was a little late, but he had one last Valentine’s Day gift to deliver, and it may be late, and it may be small, and it may be a little strange, but he figured Bucky would appreciate it.</p><p>(He did, dear reader, he did.)    </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is for everyone who is alone this capitalist commercial hell holiday, Steve and Bucky are your Valentines today. You don't need to dress up, they love you just as you are.</p><p>Comments and kudos are nifty, and give me the validation I so desperately crave. I will reply to every single one. </p><p>I really hope they have Love Hearts in America, I didn't check before having the idea.</p><p>'My favourite weirdo' was inspired by a card I saw in Tesco and really wish I'd bought even though I have nobody to give it to. Just thought it was neat.</p><p>Share your made-up Love Hearts in the comments, best one wins a prize (like, idk a ficlet request or something). </p><p>I'm at jbbarnes.tumblr.com, or @smallreprieves on Twitter or Instagram. </p><p>I really hope you liked this. &lt;333</p></blockquote></div></div>
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